Congratulations, your iPhone 4 has been unlocked!

I bought my iPhone 4 through SFR, a French telecom carrier, and recently had my carrier unlock my phone so that I can use it here in South Korea. However, I never received the famous "congratulations, your phone has been unlocked" screen so I'm curious as to whether or not my phone has really been unlocked...

I tried inserting a Korean SIM card (KT olleh) and the carrier information changes as so, but no network is detected. Is there any other way to find out whether my phone has been unlocked or not? I would like to save myself a trip to the Korean telecom office and go through a bunch of paperwork only to find out that my phone is still just an iPod touch...

If the carrier information is changing and it is not giving you a message that the SIM is not supported then it is unlocked. Why you can't connect with the network is probably something you will have to deal with the carrier about.

Today I tried using an unlocked working SIM of a friend in my phone to verify that it is unlocked. The carrier again DOES INDEED change to KT but there is again no network... This time, instead of reading "SIM not provisioned," I got the message "SIM not supported." Mind you that this SIM card works fine in their own phone purchased here in Korea... Could this mean my phone is not in fact truly unlocked...? Is there a difference between carrier lock and country lock? Could it be that my phone has been carrier unlocked by SFR and Apple, but not country unlocked??

AFAIK, no foreign iPhone, regardless of whether it is officially unlocked, will work in Korea unless that phone is registered to a specific Korean network. This is a limitation, I believe, imposed by all of the Korean carriers. You may find it difficult or impossible to get your phone registered.

Korea just changed it's IMEI registration regulations for foreign phones in Korea. What used to be a KRW 300,000 to 500,000 extra cost and headache is now essentially free! Great news, but still complicated getting an iPhone 4 to work...

I will head over there again within the next couple of days and will update ya'll.

You might have to call KTF about this because even if you buy an factory unlocked iphone or officially unlocked iphone through the carrier, like SFR, it still won't work in Korea. South Korea has a white list of IMEI that only registered IMEI will work, and only Korean phones will work. So if Korean network does not recognize the IMEI then it won't work.

If you want your foreign iphone to work, that is iphone that isn't purchased in Korea, you will have to pay about $300, roughly about 400,000 won if you convert it to Korean curreny. They will check the frequency and check that everything passes the KCC ( I think that's what it's called in Korea, not FCC).

Thanks Kwopau. I am aware of the IMEI registry in Korea. The regulations have actually been amended as of January 2011 (you no longer have to pay ridiculous fees) and KT olleh has registered my IMEI for use in Korea from what I'm aware. In fact, even Apple Support knew that my phone was registered with KT in Korea when I called.

Thank you all! After my third visit to a global olleh KT store, I finally got both my iPhone 4 and my fiancé's to work in Korea!! Once you are sure your iPhone has indeed been unlocked you can easily get your iPhone to work in Korea. The key is to remember to register your phone to the RCC. This used to be very costly and difficult but is now quite simple through a KT global store. They were a great help. I am very happy to have my iPhone working!

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